Friday, April 30, 2010

Ken Kwapis directs the story about the real-life 1988 rescue of three California gray whales trapped under Arctic Circle ice. Their plight made world news and saw US and Soviet leaders teaming to help.

Krasinski plays a small town newspaper reporter who breaks the story while Barrymore plays a Greenpeace activist.

Written by Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind) Howard would helm the pic which Grazer produces-which-would lead to a TV series

The Dark Tower series is comprised of seven books and is a hybrid of the western and fantasy genres filled gunslinging trips through time, and a commentary on, connected to, and a culmination of King's work as a writer.

George Ratliff is directing the adaptation of Larry Beinhart 's book about a former Grateful Dead fan who, after discovering the Christian faith, later finds himself on the run from the fundamentalist followers of his "mega-church"

The spring boxoffice season's final weekend matches an R-rated horror pic against a family-friendly comedy as Warner Bros. debuts the remake of "A Nightmare on Elm Street," and Summit Entertainment bows "Furry Vengeance."

"Nightmare" is sure to top the session, with solid tracking indicating prospects of scaring up as much as $30 million through Sunday. So that leaves the PG-rated "Vengeance" to duke it out with DreamWorks Animation's "How to Train Your Dragon" in the competition for the frame's other two medal positions.

"Dragon" has mounted a leggier run than expected, running north of $180 million, and the Paramount-distributed adventure looks likely to fetch low-teen millions in its sixth domestic session playing in a mix of 2D and 3D auditoriums. The film has rung up more than 60% of its theatrical coin in 3D venues each weekend.

Imax venues have offered the richest vein of 3D loot for "Dragon." Family moviegoers have been its chief base of support.

Craven says the story is set ten years after the events of the previous films - "There have been 10 years of no Ghostface, but there has been the movie-within-a-movie Stab. We have fun with the idea of endless sequels, or “sequelitis” as Kevin calls it in the script. Sid (Neve Campbell) goes through these three horrendous things, and Stab was based on those horrible things. And then they’ve been taken by a studio and run into the ground in a series of sequels. She has been off by herself and living her own life, and she’s even written a book that has gotten a lot of critical acclaim. She’s kind of put her life back together in the course of these 10 years. But, certainly, there would be no Scream without Ghostface, so she has to confront him again, but now as a woman who has really come out the darkness of her past."

Craven confirms that Sidney, Dewey and Gale (Courteney Cox and David Arquette) will very much be central characters again. Also much of the humor and theme will be where the horror genre has gone in the past decade - "There are series of films, a lot of sequels, and a lot of remakes, and part of the humor of Scream 4 is when characters comment on that. “Enough of Saw 25 and all!” [Laughs]

"A lot of films, directors, and studios are the butts of some of the jokes. In order to figure out what’s happening around them, the characters have to figure out where the genre of horror is. So this is a look at horror after 10 years of a lot of sequels rather than original films coming up year after year."

Craven thinks it's"safe to say" Scream 4 will remain R-rated, and is currently scheduled for release April 15th next year. Shooting kicks off in June

One of the best things about the original Scream film series was its mocking of its own genre...With Horror on the upswing in general There's plenty to comment on....

Set in Mexico City Johnson will play a disgraced former Special Forces soldier turned bodyguard of a judge's 21-year-old daughter who witnesses her father's murder at the hands of a member of a powerful Mexican cartel.

The pair go on the run across both sides of the border with the cartel's enforcers, who want to kill the girl before she can testify, in close pursuit.

West had previously been attached but left the pic-then Clive Owen and director Patrick Alessandrin were going to make the fillm but both recently left as well.

Gere plays a retired Central Intelligence Agency operative who is reactivated to find the Soviet assassin Cassius, a killer long thought to be dead who seems to be behind the recent murder of a senator.

Grace would play a young FBI agent teamed up with Gere who spent much of his career tracking Cassius down.

The story follows a screenwriter who locks himself in a slaughterhouse freezer as inspiration and motivation to finish a script.

He soon starts writing the story of a tow truck driver who finds himself accidentally locked in a slaughterhouse freezer with the barely alive victim of a serial killer. Soon his own personal demons, and the freezing temperatures, start to take its toll on his sanity.

The idea of J.J. Abrams paying stylistic homage to cinema master Steven Spielberg-specifically the 70's and 80's period-for his next flick sounds interesting....

Vulture reports that the pic "will deal with everyday people whose personal relationships are tested when they are thrown up against extraordinarily fantastic - and possibly other-worldly - events."--a la “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “E.T.” and “The Sugarland Express.” An insider calls the project "an interpretation of some of Spielberg's earlier films, but done in a personal way."

Spielberg may serve as either executive producer or a mentor on the project. The pic's title and plot details are being kept top secret (Cloverfield anyone?), but Vulture's source calls the film "the anti-Avatar" in that Abrams wants to do a genre film in a "fiscally responsible" way.

So what does all this mean for the Star Trek Sequel which Abrams has not yet formally committed to directing?

TrekMovie points out: "For the Star Trek sequel to make its delivery date of June 29, 2012, production would have to start no later than the Summer of 2011. That still gives Abrams time to direct another film, especially if it is a lower budget film, and then return to directing Star Trek. However, if Abrams commits to another project that is going to bleed well into 2011, he will have no choice but to bring in a new director for the Star Treksequel."

Abrams not calling action on Trek II is a concern only because I can't think of anyone else right now to fill that possible void--But I love the idea of Anti-tar--because it goes against the current trend in Hollywood. Abrams already proved he can buck conventional wisdom once last year year with Trek I have faith he can do it again--and he still might have time for Trek

Plans are underway to remake 1985 vengeful father 80's actioner Commando with a more 'grounded' and real-world approach says Deadline New York.

In the original Arnold Schwarzenegger played John Matrix, a retired special forces Colonel who learns that Bennett, a former disgraced member of his unit is still alive and has been killing off Matrix's former colleagues.

Bennett, now working for a warlord names Arius, kidnaps Matrix's daughter (Alyssa Milano) as leverage to get him to lead Arius' military coup of Val Verde. Matrix soon goes on a one-man rampage to rescue his daughter and essentially kills Arius' entire private army along the way.

But "These guys that were supposedly the writers that were going to do it, they wrote a film that came out and people saw the film and went, 'We're not going to do it after all, are we?'"

Murray says that he's actually finding the whole saga "irritating" but “Maybe it’d be fun to do… the guys are funny and I miss Rick Moranis and Annie Potts and Danny Aykroyd. That’s really a big part of it."

'Earth' is up for a Fall 2011 release but as a result director Eric Brevig wouldn't be available to direct due to his commitments to "Yogi Bear". Thus star Brendan Fraser is resisting suggestions of potential replacements like Brad Peyton.

Set in Ancient Greece, the story follows a young man (Steve Polites) who travels to an underwater kingdom in order to save his father. Along the way he encounters monsters, demons and full on mermaid battles.

Cole Haddon's script is described as an ancient Arabian "Ocean's 11" with the likes of Sinbad, Ali Baba and various others teaming for a major heist. Flying carpets, sword fights and genies are all worked into the action.

Based upon Kathryn Stockett'sbook that explores the the complicated use by the upper class matriarchs of their servants in the American South of the early 1960's.

The story follows Skeeter Phelan (Emma Stone), a white recent college graduate uncomfortable with the current social norms of Mississippi at the time - a time when black maids did all the work and received no respect. Her plan is to write a book detailing the life of the various maids in the area, but her research soon uncovers not just racism but cruelty and criminal action by white society women, some of them even her friends.

Viola Davis is playing the role of Aibileen, a maid whom aspiring writer Phelan candidly interviews. That interview sets off shock waves that reverberate across the entire community as it uncovers not just racism but cruelty and criminal action by white society women.

Howard plays Hilly Holbrook, a beehive hairdo-wearing busybody socialite who is cruel to the black maids.

The film was one of the biggest blockbusters of 2009, despite horrible reviewes with a haul of $442m worldwide. Now, a firm that represents the family of the series' creator is suing the studio for half of all profits from the film

The family's complaint reads: "Karman's provision of her screenplay writings to Fox was conditioned upon the payment of adequate compensation for those writings and her attendant services, which Karman never received."

Fox studio executives are planning to fight this one calling it "completely without merit".

Adding "We look forward to resolving our differences and, in the meantime, we are continuing to move forward with this franchise."

The plaintiffs want Karman to be made a co-owner of the script, and argue she should receive half of all profits "attributable to The Squeakquel's screenplay".

Described as The Fast And The Furious meets Point Break.the story comes from attorney-turned-screenwriter George Mahaffey, It sees a young former military pilot who is tasked with infiltrating a gang of aerial pirates in Bangkok. Their latest heist involves breaking into a massive tower using parachutes and powered gliders.

The film would tell the story of the Hatfields and the McCoys, who were in the first wave of settlers in Tug Valley, with the McCoys living on the Kentucky side and the Hatfields on the West Virginia side. The wealthy Hatfields largely fought for the Confederacy, while the McCoys fought with the Union in the AmericanCivil War.